A former police officer has been sentenced to 10 years probation for criminally negligent homicide after stabbing and killing his neighbour in Austin, Tex. in 2015. His defence? “Gay panic.”
The murder took place as retired officer James Miller and his younger neighbour David Spencer were playing music and drinking at Spencer’s house one night in September, 2015. Miller testified at his trial three years later that he went into a “gay panic” that night when Spencer moved in for a kiss, and stabbed his neighbour twice in the chest.
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“We were playing back and forth and everything, and I just let him know, ‘Hey, I’m not gay,'” Miller, 69, said in an affidavit, according to Austin NBC-affiliate KXAN.
Miller turned up at a police station a few hours later, according to the police report, and said, “I think I killed someone…I stabbed him,” reported the Washington Post.
While standing trial, Miller claimed that the killing was in self-defence — that he was in a “gay panic” after being hit on by another man.
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While several states have moved to abolish the “gay panic” and “trans panic” arguments, they remain legitimate defences in all but two American states: California and Illinois.
Jurors did not find Miller guilty of murder or manslaughter, and instead convicted him of criminally negligent homicide. In addition, the 69-year-old retiree will spend a maximum of six months behind bars, and is also set to serve 10 years’ probation.
He will also have to complete 100 hours of community service, pay $11,000 in restitution to Spencer’s family, and use a portable alcohol monitoring service for at least a year.
LGBT advocates have been working to have “gay panic” and “trans panic” defences banned. The American Bar Association has also filed a resolution urging the federal and state governments to ban these defences on the basis that they “seek to partially or completely excuse crimes such as murder and assault on the grounds that the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity is to blame for the defendant’s violent reaction.”
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Earlier this year, lawmakers in Rhode Island and New York have also moved to have these defences banned.
In January, Rhode Island democratic Rep. Kenneth Marshall introduced a bill to restrict the use of a victim’s sexual orientation or gender as a defence by defendants claiming provocation, diminished capacity or self-defence. It would prohibit the court from allowing such information into evidence.
Marshall said Tuesday he got the idea from other states passing similar legislation.
In February, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo followed suit in signing an executive order that bans all New York State agencies and authorities from conducting business with companies that tolerate or promote discrimination. He added that he’s supporting legislation to ban the use of the “gay panic” defence.
-With files from the Associated Press.
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